This data series contains 330 datasets. Landscape-scale ecological modeling has been hindered by suitable high-resolution surface meteorological datasets that include temperature, precipitation, downward shortwave radiation, humidity and winds. To overcome these limitations, desirable spatial attributes of gridded climate data from PRISM are combined with desirable temporal attributes of regional-scale reanalysis and daily gauge-based precipitation from NLDAS-2 to derive a spatially and temporally complete, high-resolution (4-km) gridded dataset of surface meteorological variables required in ecological modeling for the contiguous United States from 1979-2010. Validation of the resulting gridded surface meteorological data was conducted against an extensive network of weather stations including RAWS, AgriMet, AgWeatherNet and USHCN-2. The validation showed skill comparable to that derived from interpolation using station observations, however is advantageous in that it provides spatially and temporally complete data across several variables. These qualities suggest the dataset can serve as suitable surrogate for landscape-scale ecological modeling across vast unmonitored areas of the United States.
